


Lullaby in the Night

by KeanBlade



Series: Songs in the Wind [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, M/M, Praise Kink, dangerous pregnancy, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-12 01:01:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20555630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeanBlade/pseuds/KeanBlade
Summary: Even after becoming Hokage there is so much to be taken care of and Sakumo still had a lot to learn about Orochimaru's past; hearing about almost loosing his mate before he even knew he had a mate to loose was like a blow to the chest.





	Lullaby in the Night

**Author's Note:**

> I am in no way a child development expert nor have I ever been pregnant (and I very much don't intend to be) so all pregnancy stuff is just pieced together from google and what I've been told. Otherwise, it's a magical chakra baby, if you're looking for accuracy this might not be the right place.

Sakumo looked at Kyoshi shifting uncomfortably in front of the Hokage’s large desk and sighed, “What exactly was important enough for you to convince Inorue to let you speak with me?” the Yamanaka swallowed hard “I just…. You care for Orochimaru? I mean, clearly you do but- I- it’s just-“ he took a huge breath at the increasingly sharp look in the Hatake’s eyes and said in a to fast rush “_I-think-I-should-tell-you-about-Kakashi’s-birth!_” Sakumo froze, going unnaturally still as he pinned the young man with his eyes “And why” he said in a low voice only barely shy of a growl “do you think you should tell me that?” to Sakumo’s surprise this seemed to rally the Yamanaka a little and he stood up straighter “Because he will never tell you but I think you should know about anytime your mate has almost died.” Sakumo couldn’t stifle the thin whine that slipped past his lips at that, mind suddenly filled with a world where he had been handed a child and never known that his mate was dead; where he had never realized he knew Orochimaru’s touch and never got the chance to see that pale back writhe beneath him except in disjointed dreams, where the sharp ache in him grew deeper and deeper and never ceased to hurt.

“Unless you’d rather I not tell you?” Kyoshi’s voice was uncertain and wary when Sakumo dragged his attention back to the present; it was fine, everything was…. Well, everything _would_ be ok, he would make sure it was. Danzo had died yesterday, lost his head in front of the gathered clan heads while spitting threats and warnings about the safety of the village without him and the danger Orochimaru posed to all of them; Sakumo had _hated_ it, he knew why his mate insisted on coming but he couldn’t forget the way Orochimaru had shivered where he was pressed to the Hatake’s side and turned to press his face into Sakumo’s neck after Danzo’s voice had been cut short (nor the way he had sobbed dryly into the older man’s chest for hours, not a tear in sight but somehow worse for it). But in the here and now he needed to focus, he wanted to help his mate as much as he could and that meant find out as much as he could about Orochimaru’s fucked up past, Orochimaru certainly wasn’t going to ever tell him, not when he wasn’t totally convinced that he didn’t deserve it deep down (Sakumo was creating a list of people he needed to hurt, the only reason Danzo hadn’t died a worse death was because he just wanted him dead as fast as possible and not hovering over Orochimaru’s head).

“No” he rasped “I think you had better tell me.” Kyoshi grimaced and nodded tightly “I don’t know much about the early pregnancy- he was still running missions for the first several months- and he was hiding any sign in those robes of his, but he came into the labs at five months pregnant after he collapsed on a mission. I think the reason given for his absence was a prolonged mission? Not sure why the former Hokage bought it but I guess that doesn’t matter much. Anyway, he was fine for the first month or so; I mean, he was tired and ill looking but he still was doing things around the labs and working on projects, I think the worst part at the time was that Danzo wouldn’t leave him alone. I- I only caught the edges of what he was saying a few times but… I- it’s not pretty.”

_The labs were quiet in the best way (the way Kyoshi loved), the soft sounds of machines and the faint rustle of Orochimaru’s robes the only noise to disrupt it. It was…. Strange looking at the stark featured Sannin and seeing the changes in his shape; they were mostly discrete- a softening of sharp lines- and he certainly hadn’t shifted all the way to female, landing instead somewhere in between that gave him a clear feminine shape but (as far as Kyoshi could tell- not that he wanted to know-) there were no breasts. Orochimaru might be able to carry a child but it didn’t look like he could feed them, luckily that wasn’t exactly a problem in the modern world and anyway he had heard the older shinobi muttering something about chakra sustenance and support so he was fairly sure that there was something happening there (which would explain the faint wisps of shimmering multicolored chakra Orochimaru trailed every time he moved) which would explain it a little even though Orochimaru had flat out refused to explain anything of the exact mechanics of the change to anyone (Danzo had been furious). And even now as the Sannin was clearly beginning to show deep physical strain- Kyoshi was about two days from confining him to bed honestly, he had seen Orochimaru all but faint several times already and it was only his love of his limbs that made him refrain- Danzo was hounding him._

_ Kyoshi wasn’t sure what they talked about but Danzo had a tendency to corner the slim Sannin and mutter to him and whatever he said made Orochimaru go worryingly stiff, the Yamanaka was fairly close to bring it up with Danzo honestly; given how clearly hard the pregnancy was on Orochimaru stressing him out even more could entirely possibly cause him to loose the child (and Kyoshi knew he **adored** that baby). He shifted a bit closer, trying to get a feel for what they were saying, “- you know he never would have in his right mind. It’s your fault and you should have checked, should have known better.” “I’m not the one who **drugged** him!” “Mmm, no, but you took advantage of him didn’t you? You should have known better and you didn’t check because you wanted something and saw a chance to have it so you just….. let it happen.” Fuck all that was holy, he had no clue what they were talking about (he didn’t, he didn’t) but for it to leave that tone in Orochimaru’s voice- something like despair- it had to be bad. And if that was what Danzo was prodding him with **every time** Kyoshi saw them talking and it seemed to stray away from work…_

Sakumo shivered feeling sick, he should have known that the old scum would take every opportunity to throw Sakumo’s presumed lack of consent in Orochimaru’s face; it certainly explained a fair amount if he had had people telling him that for well over two years. Kyoshi was watching him carefully and nodded when he saw he had Sakumo’s attention again “I’m not excusing my actions- or lack thereof- I know I should have done differently but at the time I honestly didn’t put the pieces together. It truly didn’t occur to me what was going on, I am sorry for that, and I wish I could apologize to Orochimaru, but” Sakumo grimaced, yeah that wouldn’t go well for sure; everything about this situation was putting his proud mates back up, made so much worse by his inability to see the best in people’s actions after everything that had happened. And apology would not be well received. “And after that? You said he was fainting?” Kyoshi nodded “When I asked him about it he said it wasn’t totally unexpected, just that he had hopped to avoid it. Something about unbalanced chakra? Either way he just started getting worse and he was basically confined to bed for the last month and it just… It kept getting worse. He slept a lot and as we got closer his chakra just kept dropping, I couldn’t seem to get it up and he refused to work with anyone but me and the Medic that had been brought in for the actual birth.”

_Kyoshi was worried, somehow Orochimaru seemed totally sure about when the baby would be born and had told him firmly that it would be in the next few days and Kyoshi was **worried**. Orochimaru was fading fast, what little color he had was too high and he couldn’t keep his eyes open, his pulse was faint and fluttery and to fast, breathing was labored and blood pressure kept dropping out on them at unpredictable times, and the Yamanaka wasn’t sure they weren’t going to loose both mother(?) and child. It made no sense to him, Orochimaru had assured him that while this wasn’t common in his clan- it was certainly not **easy**\- it had been done many times in their history and both parent and child had lived; so why was it killing Orochimaru? What was different this time and why wasn't he letting them fix it? Kyoshi was fairly certain it was related to the Sannin’s frighteningly low chakra (that was what would kill him first if this went on much longer) but he didn’t have a clue what to do about it given that none of the normal chakra replenishment treatments were making a damn bit of difference and several had only made it worse, it was like every bit of chakra he possessed was going into the child somehow and it was going to kill him. Even if it didn’t Kyoshi was fairly certain there would be lingering health problems, chakra loss like this effected all the systems of the body and spirit; he had seen shinobi seem to recover from critical chakra loss before and then just fade away as the spiritual side of their chakra never replenished fully, that seemed far too likely with Orochimaru (at least maybe the kid would give him something to live for)._

_ “Kyoshi” the stern voice startled him out of his ruminations, and he whipped around to look at Orochimaru who was watching him with eyes that bordered on feverish “Come here and call for the healer” “What?” and impatient snort “**move!**” Kyoshi could honestly say the next few hours were some of the hardest he had seen not on the front lines of a war and that was even with Orochimaru doing not only the work of the birth but a set of rather complicated jutsu at the same time; jutsu that were normally performed by family, towards the end Orochimaru- delirious with fever- had talked about how he had always wanted Tsunade to do this part but she wasn’t here. Even worse at the end when there was too much blood and too little chakra he seemed to forget that she wasn’t there and was so confused that he couldn’t find her, hime or no Kyoshi didn’t think he would ever forgive her for not being there when he had been so sure Orochimaru was going to die- maybe she could have saved him some of the agony- when Orochimaru had asked for his sister. That was when they almost lost him, Orochimaru asked where his wolf was (which, made sense now though it hadn’t at the time) and then asked for his sister, when Kyoshi not only couldn’t bring them he didn’t even know where to look he could **see** the light go out in Orochimaru’s eyes as he gave up, see his heart slow and falter, once, twice- he spun, snatching the too small child out of the healers startled arms and dashing over the Orochimaru with the little boy held tightly to his chest. Placing a then unnamed Kakashi on Orochimaru’s chest had been a last ditch effort, telling him he had to name his son a last hope plea; but it **had worked**, Orochimaru’s eyes had silted open, the heart monitor stopped wailing and he look at his son like there was nothing else in the world._

“It was touch and go for a few months, but after he started really recovering he started refusing to let us check him over either, I _know_ he can’t be well after what happened but nobodies going to get him to get fully looked over. I did my best to keep Kakashi with him as much as I could for as long as I could, but Danzo wanted his tool back and he couldn’t have that if Orochimaru was focused on a child.” Kyoshi shifted uncomfortably on his feet again; somewhere in his story Sakumo had gotten up and turned to look out the window and all he could see was a thin sliver of the new Hokage’s face, but what he say told him he was unwelcome. Just one more thing- “Also, Hakage-sama, you should ask him at some point about whether he knew what they told you about Kakashi’s mother.” With that he bowed and beat a hasty- unashamedly so- retreat.

Sakumo stood and looked over Konoha and just _breathed_, he reached out for the thread- stronger everyday- that connected him to his mate, safely at home (as he had been almost constantly for little over a week since the former Hokage had been deposed) and _alive_, thank all the was great and Holy. He, he had been told that his sons birth would have been difficult but it was something totally different to know that Orochimaru’s heart had stopped (that he had almost given up when neither Sakumo nor Tsunade had come to him) to know that there might still be a time bomb ticking in Orochimaru’s body that could hurt him at any point (he needed to bring Tsunade home). Sakumo tucked his head for a moment and then turned sharply away, he needed to go home (there was no way he could focus on anything but his mate right now); it was little work to tidy things on his desk and nod to the ANBU on patrol around his office before he was out the office and flashing across the village to drop down on the porch. He did his best to slow his heart rate before stepping in the house and kicking off his shoes, “Orochimaru?” he called softly, he didn’t to wake Kakashi if he was sleeping (or Tenzo, though he worried about that less, the baby had slept almost constantly since he had left the labs), there was a soft sound and then his mate appeared. Sakumo dragged in a wet breath and darted forward to crush a startled Orochimaru to his chest, pressing his nose to slick mahogany hair and dragging in desperate breaths; he still smelled like he always had, foxglove-larkspur-sweet poison, but there was something added now, pine- like the trees that surrounded to Hatake home- and lemongrass- like the scents that Sakumo used- almost over whelming the foxglove, in a few months he might smell more like Sakumo than he did of the empty house he had left behind, and Sakumo couldn’t wait.

Sakumo tucked his nose against the chakra bite (the sharp scent of white chakra was strongest here) and licked at it gently, Orochimaru shuddered and gasped, his hand fisting tightly in Sakumo’s long hair; “Mmm, I hope you plan to make – ah – good on this – _Sakumo_” he pressed his (_too slender_) mate against the wall and bit his way up to Orochimaru’s demanding mouth, sinking into a deep kiss with a faint groan (he loved the way the Sannin always ended up sucking on his tongue). Orochimaru writhed against him and pressed their hips together sharply; with a fast twist he flipped them and slammed Sakumo into the wall, dropping immediately to his knees and tearing at the Hatake’s pants with hungry fingers. Sakumo moaned deeply- seeing his graceful mate like this was an addiction he would never get over- as Orochimaru mouthed hungrily at his cock even as he pulled cloth out of the way dragging his tongue over hot skin as soon as it was bared to him. Sakumo passed a adoring hand over his mate’s hair “God you’re so fucking beautiful, the most – ah – astonishing thing I’ve ever seen” Orochimaru shuddered, whining faintly around his mouthful as his hands spasmed over Sakumo’s thighs (Sakumo had noticed that, praise had an astonishing effect on his lovely lover) “you look amazing like this, willing to do this for me, your mouth is the best thing I’ve ever felt – you’re the best thing I’ve ever seen – best lover – never want another – _ah, god_ – two years always wanting you” Orochimaru’s eyes were glassy and there was a flush on his sharp cheek bones and Sakumo wondered- with the tiny shred of mind that wasn’t burning under his mate’s attention (_fuck but he could take it deep, nose pressed to Sakumo’s pelvic bone and his throat spasmed around his cock)_\- whether he could bring his mate to completion with nothing but words and praise. Orochimaru’s tongue twisted around him root to tip and all thoughts fled his mind as his head slammed back and he tried to warn Orochimaru of his impending climax; it seemed to only encourage the other man and he swallowed with a deep moan as Sakumo came hard.

He slid down the wall and dragged Orochimaru into his lap, pressing a thigh between graceful legs and causing the Sannin’s head to snap back with a rough whimper (_his voice was like that because of Sakumo)_ as he writhed against the Hatake’s leg body twisting as he pushed his way to climax with Sakumo’s pleasure drunk praise in his ears. Sakumo gently tugged his exhausted mate forward to lean on him, reveling in this moment with Orochimaru resting against him sleepy and loose; trusting that he would protect his unguarded back. After a moment the Sannin stirred against him pressing his lips to Sakumo’s ear “I love you way you taste, I love when I can feel traces of you on me, I love knowing you want me that way and being able to _feel it_” Sakumo’s eyes snapped open with a shocked whine “_Fuck! Oro! You can’t – god how are you this perfect?!_” he gathered his pleased mate into a hungry kiss (he liked it too, liked marking him, like leaving his scent all over Orochimaru as that he never smelled lonely again). They lazed there against the wall until Sakumo was willing to let go of Orochimaru long enough to head into the bathroom for a shower; it was one of his favorite things to wash Orochimaru’s slim body (to take care of him in anyway) and he was lucky that his mate was willing to indulge him as he slid soapy hands down white skin and tangled his finger in that heavy silk hair.

It was only as they sat curled together in the gathering night that Orochimaru asked softly “What is bothering you my own?” Sakumo tucked his head and pressed his nose to the chakra bite searching for calm before he spoke “Kyoshi told me about Kakashi’s birth” Orochimaru stiffened slightly “he told me it almost killed you. That is should have killed you. That you asked for me as you were dying, and I _wasn’t there_.” The Sannin dragged in a slow breath and tangled their fingers together where they rested on his chest, “That’s not your fault, you had no way of knowing any of it Sakumo, you can’t blame yourself.” He huffed a laugh into mahogany hair “I- I don’t precisely. But I _hate_ that you had to go through that alone, that you wanted me, and I wasn’t there. Another mark against Danzo’s tally. I may not be able to kill him again for what he did to you, but I will erase his name from our history; he will be remembered as the mad man that tried to destroy us in the footnotes of our lives. He will never be allowed to hurt you again.” Orochimaru hummed softly and twisted to press a kiss to Sakumo’s chin and he pretended not to notice the tremble in his too thin frame.

“I need to know, Kyoshi thought there was probably some lingering damage from the birth, I _need _to know, are you hurt?” Orochimaru pulled away but Sakumo didn’t let him go far, only until he could look his mate in the eyes if they hadn’t been downcast “He- it wasn’t an easy thing to do without you Sakumo. My blood line may give me the ability, but it takes a great deal of chakra and…” his voice was hesitant, and he still wouldn’t look up “it is supposed to be a shared burden, one that used chakra from both parents, not one alone. I _know_ you couldn’t be there and that you never gave your consent in the first place” the familiar bitter self-loathing filled his voice and Sakumo couldn’t- wouldn’t- stand for that, not ever, not when it was so not his fault and he had _needed _Sakumo had he hadn’t been there, by choice or no.

Sakumo hooked gentle fingers under Orochimaru’s sharp chin and softly tugged until he could see his eyes again unshadowed by dark hair “That’s not your fault. I, I won’t say that I did consent- clearly I didn’t- but I would have if I had had the choice. I suspect that all the drug did was lower my inhibitions, give me the bravery to approach you. And even so, _it wasn’t your fault_, you didn’t know. And I would have chosen you after, I choose you now, I only wish I could have been with you, that I could have been part of Kakashi’s birth and eased the burden. I would give almost anything to have been there and help you though it.” Orochimaru searched his eyes for a long moment before he nodded slowly, it wasn’t the end of this conversation Sakumo knew, years of trauma couldn’t be erased that swiftly, and he would have to grapple with knowing he could have saved his mate a great deal of pain (saved him from almost dying) and hadn’t been there; but tonight was not the night for that. “Beautiful, are you hurt? Are you well now or does the damage linger?” Orochimaru chewed on his lip in an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty and looked away before nodding slowly; Sakumo’s hands spasmed on his mate and he had to take several deep breaths to calm the sudden racing of his heart. “Can- can it be healed?” Orochimaru shrugged and said in a barely audible voice “I don’t know, Tsu- Tsunade might be able to, but I can’t tell the extent of it anyway. It effects my chakra I think but not so much I can’t fight so I never cared all that much.”

Sakumo couldn’t stop the pained whine the bubbled out of his throat as dragged Orochimaru tight into his embrace. He didn't say anything, he didn't want to tell Orochimaru that he would bring her back, not when he didn't know how soon he could and not when he didn't trust her with Orochimaru’s fragile heart; he would speak with his mate about it another time when the wound was a little less close to the surface and he had a lead on her whereabouts. For now, he wanted to hold him close and remember that Orochimaru _was_ alive and not near death for now, everything else would wait. He would make it wait.


End file.
